Why Choose Nazareth for Music Therapy?

Music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship. Board-certified music therapists (MT-BCs) work in medical, psychiatric, and educational settings to help clients improve psychological and physiological functioning.

The degree program at Nazareth College, approved by the American Music Therapy Association, offers several advantages, including the performance opportunities of other music majors:

• You will take four years of hour-long lessons and give a senior recital in your primary performance area.
• You can perform in honors recitals, compete in concerto and aria contests, and perform with multiple ensembles.
• Your clinical training — which begins with observations in your freshman year — will include a board-certified music therapist as a supervisor at every session throughout your four years. You will get experience conducting sessions in community health care and education settings and in our state-of-the-art Music Therapy Clinic, part of the College's York Wellness and Rehabilitation Institute. The York Institute houses clinics in many therapeutic disciplines, which allows every student the chance to co-treat with students and supervisors from other professions.

Very few programs in the country provide these expansive opportunities.

Program Highlights

• You will gain clinical practice skills through musical proficiency, research, and direct clinical experience, studying the impact of melody, harmony, and rhythm on children and adults with physical, communication, emotional, and cognitive disabilities.

• Aside from your primary instrument, you will study piano, guitar, and percussion and learn to perform, improvise, and compose music for therapy.

• Work with people with special needs in Ecuador, do social outreach through music in South Africa, Uganda, and more.

• Choose to enrich your experience through 70+ study abroad options, including Austria and Italy or Sweden for music therapy.
• Benefit from top-notch facilities. The clinics for music therapy and other allied health professions were recently renovated. Also, Nazareth's 550-seat Glazer Music Performance Center opened in 2018. The state-of-the-art building is designed to provide excellent acoustics for large instrumental and vocal ensembles, to integrate multimedia collaborations, and to enable live recording.

• Completing the curriculum and clinical training, including the 6-month internship in the "ninth semester," makes you eligible to sit for the national certification examination in music therapy administered by the Certification Board of Music Therapists. Successfully completing the exam provides you the board certification credential (MT-BC).

• With the MT-BC, you can work in a variety of clinical settings or you can pursue graduate school for advanced practice in music therapy or for a related field such as social work, special education, or neuroscience.

See answers to frequently asked questions.

Music and Art Therapy at Nazareth College